East Zone’s Duleep Trophy triumph and the red-ball questions that emerged in Chennai

East Zone ended its 14-year wait for the Duleep Trophy title. | Photo Credit: RAGU R

In the end, East Zone’s wait for its third Duleep Trophy was perhaps slightly anticlimactic. 

It came two balls into the 100th over of its second innings with its by-then academic lead standing at 760 runs. Md Kounain Qureshi, batting on 116 not out, patted a C.V. Milind delivery to mid-off; the captains shook hands, and East Zone won the Duleep Trophy after 14 years on the same ground where it had won its last.

But for all the muted nature of the finish, it was difficult to argue that the result was anything other than richly deserved for an East Zone side that produced a magnificent five days of cricket to shut out the home side.

From white-ball to red-ball

But beyond team titles, the Duleep Trophy 2026 final proved a forum for questions about the past, present, and future of Indian red-ball cricket to be raised, and in some cases revisited.

None epitomise this quite like the two captains, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma. Both have become poster boys of the gung-ho style that won India the T20 World Cup earlier this year, but the Duleep Trophy offered a high-profile opportunity for both to restate their long-form credentials.

Kishan in particular took the opportunity with both hands. He finished the match with 350 runs, the highest aggregate by a batter in a Duleep Trophy match, but his first-innings epic of 270 from 334 balls was truly defining, ensuring that East Zone effectively had the title wrapped up by stumps on Day 2.

Ishan Kishan scored 350 runs across both innings of the match. | Photo Credit: R RAGU

The 28-year-old can often monopolise a highlights package when he is on song, but what stood out in Chennai was what would be missing from one as well. There was a roundedness to his approach, developed through practice, that shone through in the moments he chose to soak up pressure and those when he chose to put it back on the South Zone bowlers. Early on the first afternoon, with precious little assistance on offer, the South Zone pace attack opted for the short-ball strategy, and Kishan channelled all of his restraint into letting each one go, knowing that the quicks would eventually tire and provide scoring opportunities.

Similarly, he parked his aggressive instincts to one side on the second morning, choosing to battle through a testing phase with the second new ball despite being well past his century at the time.

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When the scoring opportunities came through errors in line or length, he was quick to send them to the fence, and he showed relish in repeatedly dumping spinners Tripurana Vijay and Shreyas Gopal down the ground. By the time he had notched up his second First-Class double ton, his side had 708 on the board and as good a chance as any of walking away with the trophy.

His South Zone counterpart Tilak may not have walked away with a winner’s medal, but he did leave with the Player of the Series award as a reward for 266 hard-fought runs for just one dismissal across the three innings he played.

Having dug his side out of a hole with a century and fifty in the semifinal, he found himself at the crease facing a Sisyphean effort on the third afternoon but continued to grind away nonetheless.

Tilak Varma scored a gritty 99 for South Zone. | Photo Credit: R RAGU

After his semifinal heroics, the Indian T20I vice-captain had declared that red-ball cricket was “in his blood,” and he continued to evidence the statement with a 99 that dragged South Zone into the fourth day.

The Hyderabad batter carried an unhurried quality to his knock, taking relish in each ball doggedly defended to extend his stay at the crease, while sprinkling his innings with the odd boundary, particularly a pair of handsome drives through the onside of Mohammed Shami.

Captaincy test

With a docile pitch and the scorching Chennai heat, the match also provided an examination of both players’ tactical acumen, and it was Kishan who acquitted himself better. He opted to use his pacers in short bursts to avoid sapping them of energy, with the inexperienced pair of Qureshi and Shikhar Mohan holding up the other end.

Mohammed Shami Shami provided a timely demonstration of his skills with the old-ball. | Photo Credit: RAGU R

That captaincy managed to get the best out of Shami and Mukesh Kumar in particular, who accounted for five wickets between them. With his name seemingly slipping out of national conversation, Shami provided a timely demonstration of old-ball bowling, proving the only seamer who managed to extract reverse-swing from the pitch, while Mukesh backed him up, nagging away with metronomic consistency.

By contrast, South Zone seemed muddled in its plans as it toiled through the first two days. Its new-ball strategy appeared particularly uncertain, with five fielders pushed out as early as the fifth over of the first session after a brisk start from Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Abhimanyu Easwaran. As the day progressed, they seemed bereft of many ideas other than the short ball.

Mohammed Siraj, returning from national team duty in Sri Lanka, lacked incision and looked short of rhythm in the heat, culminating in a nine-over spell on the final day with the game long gone.

Eyes to the future

Beyond the questions of immediate national team selections, several younger players also did enough to merit keeping an eye on them in the upcoming domestic season.

Shikhar Mohan, who finds himself in the Rest of India squad for the Irani Cup, scored twin fifties and bowled well, while Kumar Kushagra justified his inclusion in the upcoming India A squads for the Australia A series with a first-innings ton.

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Md Kounain Qureshi, who made his First-Class debut in the semifinal, also produced an impressive all-round performance, sending down nearly 40 overs of offspin before peeling off his maiden FC ton in the third innings.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi adopted a more circumspect attitude in his two stays at the crease. | Photo Credit: R RAGU

There were also signs of further evolution in the wunderkind Sooryavanshi’s red-ball game. With an adoring crowd watching on, the 15-year-old adopted a more circumspect attitude in his two stays at the crease, possibly providing a preamble to what could come for Bihar in the upcoming season.

A format change?

Perhaps the only disappointment was the lack of stakes imbibed in the action as the match came to a close.

East Zone’s first-innings dominance with the bat gave it a near-impregnable position, and once it secured a first-innings lead on the fourth day, the remaining play became largely immaterial.

With an enthusiastic Chepauk crowd filling out the stadium for all five days, the final perhaps prompts a gentle discussion about whether a different tiebreaker can be used going forward. But final-day drudgery aside, the Duleep Trophy 2026 final served as just the right sampler for what promises to be a competitive domestic season.